Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness. — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
The deep places in our lives - places of resistance and embrace - are reached only by stories, by images, metaphors and phrases that line out the world differently, apart from our fear and hurt. — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“In the end, ethical interpretation of the Bible means to think critically about how our practices of textual engagement might help us to become both more human and more humane. We are constantly crafting and recrafting ourselves, and the goal is to do so in such a way that we contribute, even if only incrementally, more to the good in… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share
The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you, by the grace of God. — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
Every imperial agent wants to reduce what is possible to what is available. — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“The outcome is to delegitimize and deconstruct the kings in effective ways in order to show that while they occupy the forms of power,… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
The church meets to imagine what our lives can be like if the gospel were true. — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“Pharaoh is clearly a metaphor. He embodies and represents raw, absolute, worldly power. He is, like Pilate after him, a stand-in for the whole… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“The news enacted by Elisha is reperformed by Jesus. It is, subsequently, performed in many other venues, sometimes by the followers of Jesus, sometimes… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
People notice peacemakers because they dress funny. We know how the people who make war dress - in uniforms and medals, or in computers… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“Only those who embrace the reality of death will receive the new life. Implicit in his statement is that those who do not mourn… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
“The truth that is variously enacted by such agents is not an idea or a proposition. It is rather a habit of life that simply (!) refuses the totalizing claims of power. The governor, on behalf of the empire, will continue to ask, “What is truth?” And the apostles will continue to give answer, uncommonly unintimidated: “‘We must obey God… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share
“The same subversion of power by truth is evident in the way in which Luke begins his account of Jesus of Nazareth. Luke is at pains to put his readers on notice that this is no ordinary history. He has an angel anticipate cousin John by saying, “with the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him” (1:17).… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share
We now know that human transformation does not happen through didacticism or through excessive certitude, but through the playful entertainment of another scripting of… — Walter Brueggemann Copy Share Image
